Badminton House in Gloucestershire was the seat of the Dukes of Beaufort, and this token was issued during the great copper token boom of the 1790s — a direct consequence of the Royal Mint's near-complete failure to produce adequate small change for an industrializing economy. Private merchants and landowners filled the void. The Beaufort connection gives this piece a distinctly aristocratic provenance unusual among provincial tokens, most of which were commercial in origin.
DH#35 in Dalton and Hamer's reference remains the standard attribution for this type.
Badminton House in Gloucestershire was the seat of the Dukes of Beaufort, and this token was issued during the great copper token boom of the 1790s — a direct consequence of the Royal Mint's near-complete failure to produce adequate small change for an industrializing economy. Private merchants and landowners filled the void. The Beaufort connection gives this piece a distinctly aristocratic provenance unusual among provincial tokens, most of which were commercial in origin.
DH#35 in Dalton and Hamer's reference remains the standard attribution for this type.